TOMahawk and I have joined the ranks of the Vermont maple syrup prize winners by getting podium finishes (both finished 3rd in our respective age groups) in the Woodstock 7-mile road race on July the 4th in Woodstock, VT. By having done so we can now be mentioned in the same sentence as the likes of MajorTOM.
It was a picture-perfect day on which about 130 runners challenged themselves on an “attention getting” hilly course, and dressed in the team uniforms TOMahawk and I proudly displayed the true Team IRONTOM colors.
By the time we arrived in Woodstock, TOMahawk was already there looking happy and ready to go. After a quick registration and a short warm up run around the Green the horn went off to mark the start of the race.
The 7-miler was definitely a good warm-up event for me before the upcoming Ironman USA in Lake Placid, in a couple of weeks. Its initial 3 miles were relatively flat and fast, giving an opportunity to get into a solid tempo. At mile 3, my Polar monitor read 19:30, which made me realize that I may be going a little to fast. Fortunately, I did not have to wait too long for the slow down. The few demoralizing, and seemingly, never-ending run-ups took care of that. Not having scouted this course before I had no idea how long they were. And they were long, indeed.
Well, what goes up must eventually come down - that is, at least, what they say, and in this case they were right, again. The descends were as challenging as the ascends making the quads and the lungs celebrate the 4th of July, together. At times, I was questioning the wisdom of my training day on Thursday, which included tempo runs and uphill bike intervals. But, after all, it was to be an another training day.
About ½ mile before the finish line I started accelerating in an attempt to break the 51-minute mark, but it was not meant to be that day (perhaps, next time on July 4th 2009). My finish time was 51:02, 25th in the general classification and 3rd in the 44-49 age group.
TOMahawk was close behind. With a taped-up left knee he clocked-in a finishing time of 51:52 and a 3rd podium finish in the 40-44 age group.
In the afternoon, we had a great barbeque time with the TOMahawks, and were dazzled by a single firework, or something that resembled that.
